"Eigenvector" wrote:
The soil my yard sits on it extremely rocky. It's very nice soil, all
glacial till and stream bed composition, but more rocks than I care to
count. Digging a hole is an exercise in futility as I will encounter round
rocks about the size of a baseball or grapefruit more often than not.

I would like to take a rototiller to a patch of land but fear what will
happen with all those damn rocks. What kind of things should I look out for
when rototilling really rocky soil? Do I need a special tiller, should I
simply not do it, would renting one be a bad idea (I'm thinking of damage to
the unit), would a rototiller not do a good job?

Are there other options besides a tractor?

In a word, no. No tiller will remove rocks, and the size rocks you
describe will definitely impede tiller operation, probably cause it
and/or yourself damage. Tillers are not designed to work virgin land
anyway, even without rocks, needs busting up first with a plow, spade,
fork...

For a relatively small plot (500 sq ft or less) you can choose to bust
your butt spading and picking out rocks by hand but with larger plots
you really need a tractor (or a team of oxen) fitted with a plow to
bust up the sod and a box rake for picking out rocks. For ground you
plan to till each year (ie. crops) you really need to remove the
rocks, but for planting trees and woody shrubs you can get by with
just clearing a planting hole.

Without knowing how large an area you need cleared of rocks and what
you plan to plant (if anything, you don't say) then all anyone can
offer you is wild speculation.

There's one other option... a crew of illegal aliens with picks,
shovels, and rakes. LOL